SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
The
web does a great service; it informs us of the triumphs and tragedies of the day.
But as we relish the accessibility of knowledge we are also aware that what we see
is what others have chosen to make available to us. There is much else that
lies hidden.
We hear
of an earthquake in Nepal, the advance of IS in Iraq and corruption in FIFA.
But we did not know, until a judge jolted us with the knowledge last week that
an estimated 80,000 people are kept in solitary confinement - some of them for
forty years - in the United States. The judge was in Louisiana and he ordered
the immediate release of Albert Woodfox, who had been locked up for twenty
three hours a day for forty years charged with a crime he denies he committed
and two court cases failed to prove he had.
What
struck me was, not so much the horrific details of such treatment of human
beings as, the fact that we would never have known about it if that judge had not
said “enough is enough.” And the people who held Woodfox in those conditions
for so long don’t seem to have any idea of the cruelty and inhumanity of their
actions. Thanks to the decision of one judge the world now knows and the
pressure will mount for more just treatment of alleged and indeed convicted
criminals.
Yet
one continues to ask how is it possible that authorities in a country that has
“inalienable rights” written into its constitution for more than two hundred
years can treat its citizens like that?
Mixed
with my anger I also find myself thinking of the judge and the courage he has
shown in questioning the system. This is exciting and encouraging. Things can
change. Thaye can change in politics, in
the Church and in society. In the Catholic Church one man, this time at the
highest level, is “questioning the system.” The changes this approach brings
will last. Jesus had stories about such changes. He emphasised that they are
gradual, like a farmer sowing grain which, “sprouts and grows; how, he does not
know.” Or like a little tree which from the “smallest of all the seeds grows
into the biggest shrub of all so that the birds of the air can shelter in hits
shade.”
You
won’t find this on the web. The web gives us facts. The Spirit gives substance
to our dreams.
14 June 2015 Sunday
11 B
Ezekiel 17:22-24 2
Corinthians 5:6-10 Mark
4:26-34
